Moama Anglican Grammar School principal Carmel Spry said there had been changes to border permits which meant as of August 21 students, staff and parents who live outside the border community would no longer be able to cross the Victorian-NSW border to attend school.
“For families who live outside the border community area we will re-introduce our quality distance learning program that will begin on Monday, August 24,” she told parents in an email on Friday.
“The organisation will be different from last time, as we will run face-to-face learning for those who are able to attend school and QDL for those who cannot.”
Nanneella parent Claira Whipp, who has a daughter, Winnie, 7, at MAGS and Ginger, 4, at kinder in Moama, said she was concerned about how the change would impact her children.
“We got the news last week that Winnie will be the only one in her class who will be learning from home,” she said.
“I didn't know how to tell her, I knew she would be devastated.
“Because we live on a farm, school and kinder was the only socialising the girls got, and now they can't even do that.”
She said she was also worried about Ginger, who would usually go to specialist appointments over the river.
“Ginger is supposed to be seeing a speech pathologist,” she said.
“So with that and not being able to socialise, we will have to start all over again.”
While her children have been through isolation and online learning before, this time would be different for the family, Mrs Whipp said.
“Last time it was okay because we were all in the same boat,” she said.
“Now there are no other children and none of my school mum friends are doing it, it's really going to take a toll.
“Winnie will have to see all her friends through a screen and hear them talk about everything they've done at school, it's just unnecessarily hard.”
And to top it off, the family is losing income at the same time.
“My husband is a farmer and owns land over in NSW that he can't get to,” she said.
“It means we will miss out on a whole lot of income now and we're not sure what we're going to do.”
And through it all, Mrs Whipp said she couldn't thank the school enough for all they'd done.
“MAGS have always looked after our kids and they've been fighting to get these permits for weeks, I can't thank them enough,” she said.
It is not known how long the students will be learning from home.
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